The Geneva Proposals for an International Trade Charter

Abstract

The charter of the International Trade Organization, as drafted at Geneva in the spring of 1947, is a pact expressing the rules of behavior which nations undertake to observe in their economic relations with one; another. Regardless of the subsequent history of this draft, it merits ^ examination as an illustration of the practical difficulties to be surmounted I by those who seek to implement by international agreement even so obj vious a goal as economic cooperation. Not only must idealism and theory I come to grips with the fact that every transaction in international trade ; affects someone's pocketbook, but methods and techniques must be devised to create a semblance of uniformity in a world of vastly different economic practices. Since the Geneva draft seeks to regularize international trade conduct after fifteen years of both autarchic control and war, it bears witness to the fundamentally long-range character of the problem.